Tuesday 11 July 2006

Bomb blasts in Mumbai's railway stations

I make two points in that piece: one, the nature of terrorism is changing in India, and soft targets in big cities are more and more likely to be targeted. Two, this represents a challenge for Indian secularism that it must win if we are not to squander the gains of independence and democracy. Please read, and feel Free to Comment.Update 7 (around 4 am, July 12): (I'm putting this update on top to summarise events. Scroll below for the chronology of my posting.)

Seven bomb blasts have taken place across Mumbai, along the Western Line railway, at rush hour. The exact locations are still not being clearly reported (see conflicting versions here and here), but this map (via Counterterrorism Blog) seems to be roughly correct. There's also a Google Map here.

Mumbai Help, which I'm part of, has seen loads of updates from bloggers, with one post in particular standing out: "How can we help you?" worked superbly as a forum through which people could reach their loved ones in Mumbai, and find out that they were okay. There is also a wiki now for such info.

More links will follow later. The original post, along with its first few updates, is below below the next update.

There's a lot of misinformation floating around, especially regarding blood donations. Rumours were floating that Sion Hospital needed 1600 bottles of blood, but that is not true. I just called them up and they told me they had excess blood, and there's a first-person account here from someone who went there to donate blood. Before you head off for that purpose, please call the hospital you intend to go to. A list of telephone numbers is here. More numbers (via Mumbai Help): Blood banks, BMC control rooms.

The Mumbai Police has a list of dead and injured people here. Everybody I know in Mumbai travels by train; any of us could have been on that list. It's chilling, and it feels frivolous to offer condolences on a blog for those who have lost a friend or relative. What consolation can there be?

The TV channels are full of pictures, and cliches like "lifeline of Mumbai" and so on. One anchor asks his correspondent if this is a terrorist attack, as if he'd know five minutes after reaching the blast site. Phonelines are down across the city, though SMSs from outside are coming in. More later.

Update: As soon as the first pictures started, Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN started waxing about how how "resilient Mumbaikars" were "helping each other." And moments ago, he bragged about how "this is the power of a global news organisation. These pictures are going out across the world thanks to CNN-IBN." Every news channel had more or less the same pictures.

Update 2: AN Roy says on NDTV 24x7 that at least 60 dead bodies have been located. He also says that the police has given no instructions to disable telephone lines, and that they are jammed for a different reason. (Obviously because everyone's trying to call at the same time and the network can't take the traffic.) Electricity has also been turned off at most of these stations, clearly for safety reasons. (Update: The latest death toll being reported is 135.)

Update 3: High-intensity explosives have been used for these attacks; some of the railway carriages have been ripped apart. This is clearly no amateur job, but a well-planned operation by a group with plenty of resources.

Update 4: A post on Mumbai Help, "How can we help you?" has effectively become a forum where you can ask for information or help in reaching friends etc. Feel free to post a message there if you need something, loads of different bloggers are monitoring that post, and will try to help out.

Update 5: LK Advani and Gopinath Munde of the BJP have appeared on news channels to condemn the central and state governments respectively. You'd expect the politicians to try and take advantage, but I hope -- like most Mumbaikars, I'm sure -- that the Shiv Sena doesn't get involved. It must be tempting for them to assert themselves by setting off a communal conflagaration. That would be a far worse disaster than these blasts. Mumbai needs to hold together now.

Ferrari, no idea, right now the phone networks in Mumbai are jammed because everyone's trying to make calls at the same time. keep trying.

Also, you can try posting the numbers here: http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-can-we-help-you.html. Hopefully a reader from outside Mumbai can try and get through. I'm not being able to get through anywhere right now.

Whoever did this are those people who doesnt have any humanity left in them . They do this because of their own personal interest and place it on the agenda of mere religion. I hate these people. They should be hanged to death for taking so many innocent lives.My sympathy goes to all who are affected by these attacks. May God give them peace

Every year in summer we have these blasts, why can't the government or th epolice do something about it. And finally if there is a hand of pakistan in this then god willing let's not sit on our asses this time.

I'm sure Mumbai will be back to business as usual. The nonchalant "chalta hai" attitude of these people is amazing.

I must warn Mumbai that this is not a time to get back to business, this is a time to demand some action from those incharge for protecting you. This is a time to call for the revamp of the police and emergency response services, educate the common folk to be vigilant and hold the home minister and intelligence agencies accountable for their failures.

Otherwise, you're the perfect soft targets the terrorists will continue to use to get their agenda onto the TV screens across the world.

Terrorist attacks don't just happen, they are ALLOWED to happen. Do not allow the politicians to con you into believing they are helpless against such attacks and DO NOT allow the terrorists to treat you like sheeple who, if they slaughter enough, will be shown bleating in panic on the world TV screens.

Very Unfortunate and uncalled for? What did mumbai do to deserve this?

But I am not surprised that there is no reaction from the Sainiks where everyone has falsely painted a picture of them over the years. The people have helped paint a false picture of the Sainiks because they are doing their heinous acts behind the innocent harmless actions of the Sainiks.

Latest example: Distract the Sainiks like the way they did last weekend so that these terrorists could plant the bombs. It was a well orchestrated plan in advance.

Some gullible people even blogged about it coz with the sainiks they can dare to write anything about them. But with these fanatics (SIMI) no one dare blog or write or raise their voice. Such is the scare created by OBL and like wise gang

Let us analyze how 3 sections of the society reacted to terrorist acts:

USA: After 9/11, went on two major wars in retaliation . One with Afganistan and the other with Iraq. Several thousands of life were taken. But they taught everyone a lesson. People of USA were thus comforted down once their elected President did what was expected. In return, they re-elected him.

Intentional Statue and Hindu Idol abuse on 7/9/06 : Sainiks ONLY burned buses and asked people to close their shops thus causing mere planned inconvenience . (do the Indian children of Meena tahi have this liberty to save the grace of whom they regard as their mother)

SIMI/ DAWOOD/ OBL & gang : Blast buildings in USA, Bali, Kashmir and killed lakhs of innocents in 1993, 9/11, 7/7 , 7/11. Innocents are dead , common men have died mercilessly in the name of religion wars.

Sainik reaction to 7/11 (prediction in advance): None and there will none. Probably burning buses coz they will be at it again. But no killing. Wait and watch.

--I wish we had a President like Bush.--I wish people could fear the Indian they way people fear SIMI, Dawood and OBL.

God bless the dead and give lots of mental courage to the families whose loved ones never returned and never will.

the worst part is that I don't get why this dump politicians come to show their face for half and hour and say the same filmy dialouge" We will fight against this with strong hands & cath the guitly ones" making police and other resources busy in giving security to them

These balsts gives the SHIT on the face of the intelegence department of the state as well onto the central goverment. Disaster at such a large level is not one day task, its a properly planned actions aimed to harm the innocent people.

May god give strength and courage to the relatives of the people who lost their lives and who suffres the injuries.

In the end i would really like to say thanks to the owner of the blog for the effort he's done. Doing gr8 job in informing and serving the people. God bless